Series: Love
I Peter 4:8 ESV
2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ESV
Ezekiel 36:27-28 ESV
I’ve learned in seventy plus years that the hardest thing to do is to love earnestly and the easiest thing to do is love earnestly. It really doesn’t seem to come down to perspective. It comes down to relationships…which are extremely complex.
That’s what makes loving earnestly easy and it’s also what makes it difficult. After all, real deep relationships require regular attention to the relationship, time and patience, and good communication skills.
Even then, success in relationships is not easy in our world.
I Peter 4:8, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
Believers may be intent on loving one another, but even then must rely on God’s help with every relationship.
In other words, love is not easy.
It is the right choice. But we cannot do it on our own.
The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 we have a promise, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
The Spirit gives life and makes loving possible.
Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
We are not alone. The Spirit of God has reconciled us and made it possible for us to love God and to love one another even when it doesn’t seem possible.
I once knew a woman who took it upon herself to single out my children. She was constantly looking for ways to tell others about sins they committed. Once she spread rumors that the cross one of them wore was evil and satanic. The cross was a cross. It was a gift from a friend. The cross did not have any strange markings on it.
My child was very hurt by the rumors but I assured her that there wasn’t anything strange about the cross and nothing would change…the cross could be worn.
I had others look at the cross to see if they noticed anything strange, but they didn’t see anything either.
My dad taught me to forgive others and I went to a revival once from a well-known evangelist at the time and he taught to forgive regardless of the circumstance.
Even if the person isn’t asking for forgiveness, forgive anyway.
So I prayed and I forgave the woman. I told God I was confused and I didn’t understand why the necklace was a problem for her, but I specifically forgave her and I prayed that Jesus would help her.
The woman never spoke to me again.
It was my understanding that she continued to talk about the cross necklace in a derogatory manner.
Still, I forgave her and I asked God to fill her with the love of Jesus.
Gradually I “got over” feeling hurt.
The Prophet Ezekiel promised the people of God the Spirit would be their guide.
In Ezekiel 36:27-28 he wrote, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
We are promised the Spirit will be our guide.
We walk in the way of God and that means forgiving others in the love of Jesus even when they don’t ask to be forgiven.
As children of God we look to the Spirit to provide us with the love of Jesus even when we do not understand.
I’ve learned I do not need to understand. I simply need to forgive and surrender the matter to Jesus. That includes loving others who are not easy to love. As humans even when we don’t understand how to love, we are called to turn the matter over to God.
Love isn’t always easy.
We may not understand why others do the things they do.
But by forgiving them we are turning the matter over to God who knows everything.
Personally, I’m thankful that I don’t have to be in charge.
Spiritual Practice: Forgive
Even if you don’t understand, tell God you forgive when someone hurts you.
In God, Deborah
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